Azerbaijani women in Iran have been invisible citizens because of their ethnicity and gender. They have faced racism and sexism from Persian women and men, as well as sexism within their own community. Azerbaijani women faced racism, colonialism, and sexism from their culture and from the dominant Persian system, which is perpetuated by cultural and linguistic differences. With all their experiences, Azerbaijani women never received enough attention in Iranian women’s movement; additionally, challenges in the Azerbaijani community, as a semi-colonized community, have faced Azerbaijani local activists with various obstacles. In this research through using Azerbaijani women’s experiences, I explore how feminist movements cannot divorce themselves from the hegemonic socio-political system they operate within, as observed in the case of Iran. Thus, the Iranian mainstream feminist movement reflects the power hierarchies in Iran and is complicit in marginalizing minority groups and women. By focusing on how transnational women’s movements are unable to capture fully the voices of local communities and therefore further that marginalization, I explore the dilemma of identity in Azerbaijani Turk as semi colonized community has also carried over to feminist debates, while these debates have faced Azerbaijani local activists with challenge to create a bridge to their local community as well as global world.
